United States v. Brown University
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
5 F. 3d 658 (1993)
MIT and eight Ivy League schools formed the "Ivy Overlap Group" to coordinate financial aid for commonly admitted students, agreeing to award aid only based on need using a standardized methodology and meeting annually to reconcile aid amounts for shared applicants; the United States sued MIT (the only member that did not settle) alleging Sherman Act price-fixing, and the district court found the conduct constituted price fixing but, given the schools' nonprofit educational nature, declined the per se rule in favor of an abbreviated quick-look analysis. MIT appealed, arguing financial aid was not commercial activity within the Sherman Act's scope and that a full rule-of-reason analysis, not the quick-look approach, should have applied.
Whether a nonprofit university's coordinated financial aid program constitutes commercial activity subject to Sherman Act antitrust scrutiny, and whether such an arrangement, once found facially anticompetitive, should be assessed under an abbreviated quick-look analysis or a full rule-of-reason inquiry.